YOSINOFF INDUCTED TO URI ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – Emmanuel College’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach and Associate Director of Athletics, Andy Yosinoff, can add yet another prestigious honor to his resume. Yosinoff was recently inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame of his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island. A 1970 graduate of URI, Yosinoff was a standout on the Rams Men’s Tennis Team, before his reign as the head coach of the perennially powerful Emmanuel Saints Women’s Basketball Team.
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – Emmanuel College's Head Women's Basketball Coach and Associate Director of Athletics, Andy Yosinoff, can add yet another prestigious honor to his resume. Yosinoff was recently inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame of his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island. A 1970 graduate of URI, Yosinoff was a standout on the Rams Men's Tennis Team, before his reign as the head coach of the perennially powerful Emmanuel Saints Women's Basketball Team.
The URI Athletic Department hosted the Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Quidnessett Country Club on the scenic coast of Rhode Island. The event was originally supposed to take place as a Hall of Fame dinner on February 8th, but was postponed due to the "Blizzard of 2013." Regardless of the date and time change, Yosinoff's fan club was well-represented at what became a Sunday morning brunch. Yosinoff's supporters filled four tables, with one full of friends and family, one with Emmanuel College co-workers, one with his former URI tennis teammates and one with Yosnoff's URI fraternity brothers.
As the top singles player for the URI Men's Tennis Team in 1970, Yosinoff led the Rams to a perfect 14-0 season that was capped off by the school's first-ever Yankee Conference title. Yosinoff also won the conference's individual title that season and finished his career with a record of 48 wins and 12 losses in singles competition.
Yosinoff holds the distinction of being the first Rhode Island student-athlete to earn a scholarship in tennis. A member of the United States Professional Tennis Association, he held the No. 1 singles spot in the URI lineup all four years with the Rams.
Yosinoff graduated from URI in 1970 with the Bachelor of Arts degree in Physical Education and went on to earn his Master's Degree in Physical Education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Following his success at URI, Yosinoff became an adapted physical education teacher in the Boston Public Schools and coached boys' high school basketball at the Snowden International School. Joining the staff at Emmanuel College in 1976, Yosinoff has served as the Head Coach of the Saints Women's Basketball Team for the past 36 years, making him the third all-time tenured coach at any one school, trailing just Elizabethtown's Yvonne Kauffman (42 years) and Tennessee's Pat Summitt (38 years) in most years coached at one school. Yosinoff became the Director of Athletics at Emmanuel in 1986, a position he held along with his coaching duties until 2003.
During his 36 seasons with the Saints, Yosinoff has led Emmanuel to 18 NCAA Tournament appearances and to 15 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) titles, including a current streak of seven-straight GNAC Championships. He has coached the Saints as far as the NCAA Final Four in 2001, to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2012 and to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2007. Currently, Yosinoff and the Saints have put together an impressive streak of thirteen-straight 20-win seasons and have not suffered a regular season conference loss since the 2009 season.
Yosinoff is the third all-time winningest coach in Division III Women's Basketball history and the second winningest active coach. Yosinoff captured his 700th career victory earlier this season, becoming the first Division III coach in New England to hit this milestone. He joined Division I UCONN's Geno Auriemma and Division II Bentley's Barbara Stevens in a trio of New England women's coaches with 700 or more wins.
Following Emmanuel's Elite Eight run in 2012, Yosinoff was honored by the Jewish Coaches Association with the Red Auerbach Award for the National Jewish Coach of the Year. In 2005, Yosinoff led the United States Women's Basketball Team to a gold medal in the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
This is Yosinoff's third Hall of Fame induction. He was previously inducted to the New England Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003 and was among the first class inducted to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 2010.
"I'm so proud of this great honor," commented Yosinoff. "This is definitely the highlight of my athletic career."
Yosinoff was one of five inductees for the 2013 URI Hall of Fame class. In addition, URI inducted Lynn Lanzel Levalley '88 (Women's Track & Field), Anthony Rose, Jr. '54 (Football, Men's Basketball, Men's Track & Field) , Thom Spann '78 (Football, Men's Track & Field) and Raymond Williams '87 (Football, Men's Track & Field).
Watch Andy's Induction Video below:
URI Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Video for Emmanuel College's Andy Yosinoff from Emmanuel College.